There are plenty of options for urban water in South-East Queensland without the Traveston Crossing Dam Read what the Australian Water Association (the peak professional body for Australia's water industry) has to say on the matter:

The announcement of Peter Garrett’s “proposed decision” to can the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam has been welcomed by all those who have spent the last three and a half years examining the proposal and campaigning against it.

Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President, Glenda Pickersgill said she was pleased and relieved that the decision was based onsound science.

“We wish to commend Minister Garrett and the staff of his Department for their professional and scrupulous conduct on this issue and urge him to hold his position. This decision is consistent with the Federal Government’s policies on water, climate change and biodiversity. It is the right decision,” Ms Pickersgill said.

“Although we need to wait for the final decision, we will shift our focus to making sure the community is involved in determining the use of over 14000 ha or so of land which has been purchased (prior to gaining the approvals needed for the project to proceed) by Queensland Water Infrastructure Pty Ltd,

On Tuesday, 2 November, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd arrived for a health forum at Hervey Bay hospital and he was greeted by a sea of yellow made up of Greater Mary Association members.

He left the vehicle he arrived in and walked over to our group, shook everyone's hand, received a gift of a "Love, Mary" book, a no dam pen and an "I love Mary" mug and strode away.

It was all over in a flash, but one sentence spoken by the Prime Minister left us pondering it's significance. On receiving the gift, his words were "Don't worry, I've swum in the Mary River, I know it's a beautiful place."

Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett are going into the next election with a policy platform on the environment which should make the federal decision on the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam very simple. Just say no. The project does not align with the policies that Mr Rudd is trying to put into place, and the project does not align with the objectives of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that Mr Garrett administers. Here is a link to the federal labor environment platform they claim will govern their actions in the future. The first real test of these words is the "Traveston Test". What decisive action will these two men make between now and the 18th of November on what is arguably the most significant case to ever come before the EPBC act in its history? Australians expect the government to provide reliable, sustainable water supplies that do not destroy their rivers - the proposed dam at Traveston Crossing is the antithesis of this expectation.